Gay couple quickly granted marriage license after lawsuit – KXII

Initially Katie Lang, the county clerk, said her office wasn’t issuing licenses because of her religious beliefs; she then clarified her statement to indicate she wouldn’t issue licenses, but her staffers would. The conservative group held a rally in support of Lang last week.

By itself, that would be enough for Cato and Stapleton to sue for the right to marry in their state, but when the couple went back to the office on Thursday to try again, things got weird in the clerk’s office. [She] told them she could not accept that form.

– A gay couple sued a rural Texas county clerk for delaying by “at least three weeks” giving them a same-sex marriage license, because the county needed to have paperwork reprinted in a gender-neutral fashion. When it was pointed out that more than 200 other Texas counties are issuing the licenses from forms readily available over the Internet, Lang stood firm.

Lang’s office eventually issued the couple a marriage license “in handwriting on the existing license form, which proves that County Clerk Lang easily could have complied with the law without waiting ten days”, the couple’s attorneys said.

When asked if the county had received the reprinted marriage certificates, Chavero said, “not really, but we’re working on it”. Jim Cato and Joe Stapleton filed the lawsuit Monday against Hood County Clerk Katie Lang, saying they repeatedly had been […]. “I think as long as people get licenses then it doesn’t particularly matter who issues them”.

A lawyer for Jim Cato and Joe Stapleton filed the lawsuit this morning in Fort Worth Federal Court.

A Texas gay couple filed suit against a county clerk this morning over her office’s refusal to issue them a marriage license – but now her office is granting Jim Cato and Joe Stapleto the license, which the couple is expected to pick up this afternoon.

“Nothing can serve the public interest more than for this court to issue an order admonishing the defendant that public officials who have a duty to uphold the Constitution, and in fact have sworn to do so, cannot frivolously choose to ignore the Supreme Court of the United States and create their own ‘Rule of Law, ‘” the lawsuit stated.

Lang has not responded to a request for comment.